


Take a step back

by Scar_Lacie



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fantasy, Kinda Angst but ?!?!, M/M, Secret Valentine 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 09:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17957816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scar_Lacie/pseuds/Scar_Lacie
Summary: There are things Yuzuru realizes when death takes just one more step.





	Take a step back

**Author's Note:**

> Fantasy AU
> 
> CONTEXT: People who dies walk through a forest to reach their end point, and in that forest, there is a spirit who would be labeled as grim reaper due to his duty being guiding the dead to their right exit.
> 
> For EnStars Secret Valentine 2019

His foot lands on the poor grass, mushing it while trying not to crush the plant completely as Yuzuru relaxes his body weight. They are all unconscious actions that no one takes notice of but nevertheless do it anyway. The other foot soon makes a step forward, landing down unknowingly about the possible tiny things below it. 

It doesn’t matter, as Yuzuru right now doesn’t matter either.

“Aren’t you so sad, Mr.Butler?”

Yuzuru ignores him for a while, continuing on his path forward. He doesn’t know where he’s going, but if the other hasn’t said anything about it, the path he is taking is probably correct. Unless by nature, everything about Wataru is a mask. But isn’t tricking everyone into death  the villain favorite?

“I’m no villain but a pigeon that deliver love across the world!”

Yuzuru stops for a moment, eyebrows arch but expressions stay the same. Wataru is doing it again.

“You promised not to read my thoughts, Hibiki-sama.”

“Apologize!” Wataru raised his voice, and birds can be heard flying away from trees. 

“However, isn’t that your fault for ignoring me Mr.Butler? You aren’t at any place to be high and mighty~!” Then he lowered it back again with the normal speaking volume, though now increased his speed with each word leaving his mouths.

Yuzuru sighs but then goes back to the task at hand, walking to an unknown destination with a guide on the shoulder, or in this case floating around him. He grabs onto a tall root that somehow is taller than him, and uses his strength to climb over, but eyes sticking to Wataru who takes his life easy, if he is still counted living, and floats right through it, in a lying-to-the side position, smiling.

If he was someone else, Yuzuru can really see Wataru getting a punch in the face. 

Yuzuru brushes it off, brushes away how easy it was for Wataru to do something physically, brushes away how energetic and satisfied Wataru looks with everything, brushes away Wataru. But Yuzuru is Yuzuru, he knows that he is himself, and there are things he can do but other can’t, he knows that it isn’t just choices that makes up a person but also the circumstances that truly shape up a character, a personality. He brushes off Wataru, yet now he can’t really brush off his thoughts.

They start to pile up.

And Wataru continues.

“Aren’t you being so sad, Butler-san?”

Wataru reaches his hand forward, grabbing onto the tree branch that stick itself out from an ancient tree as if to block their way toward the end. He swings, as if it’s a circus performance the magician Wataru would do to amuse the audience. Yuzuru is his only audience right now, and there are no applause. He lands onto the next branch, turning back to watch Yuzuru taking his time through the tiny roots scattered on the ground.

Their eyes meet, Yuzuru continues to not reply.

And Wataru drops a mask down before him.

It disappears.

“Don’t go too far.” Wataru cut his own conversation, instructing the way but never come back to it, at least not yet. “Take a right turn rightttt here! We’re getting close, Mr.Butler.”

Listening, Yuzuru takes a turn but then immediately stops. It steals his breath away, the scenes waltzing themselves in front of him.

When you are about to die, they say, your life will flash before your eyes.

Yuzuru sucks in a breath.

He walks forth, threading his way through the life he had been living through. It’s overwhelming and weird at the same time, especially when he was just thinking about himself since the moment he was born, about how and who he was made to be, about how and who else he had wanted to become, about how and who he had been, is, and will have been. The path was not narrow, but it makes Yuzuru feels small, it makes Yuzuru feels like his life was not as big as him, it makes Yuzuru feels like a child.

Wataru is nowhere to be seen.

Yuzuru has been walking for a while, not lost in thought but lost in the life he had once lived. He wants to touch them, to touch those fragments that might help him live again, but the moment you step into this forest, your life has long long gone. 

Yuzuru feels like a child, a child that wants to be strong.

Wataru is still nowhere to be seen.

It’s impossible to tell time in this place, but does time still mean anything anymore? Does the dead still have time? Yuzuru could have done so many things now that he think about it, he is still fairly young, still supposed to have that bright future ahead of him, still supposed to have the opportunities for a change in life, still supposed to be given a life outside of the Himemiya’s household. At least, Yuzuru got to see the moment when Tori became the new head of the house, at least he did fulfill his purpose in life serving the clan even on dead bed. 

At least, half of his life is completed.

It cracks, the mask laying on his path.

Yuzuru turns back. 

Wataru is there on the ancient tree where he took a turn, in hand holding a white chrysanthemum. 

“Hibiki-sama,” Yuzuru calls, standing next to the tree trunk. Can’t believe there is a day where birds would fly away from trees because of him.

“Oh I see you have taken a turn back, Mr.Butler,” Wataru looked down, smiling with confident as his legs dangling of the branch, one would probably mistaken him for being a little girl from afar. “But remember, no matter how much time you stall, walking out of here through the entrance is impossible.”   
  
“They are called entrance for a reason~!”

“Hibiki-sama,” Yuzuru called again, clearly knew that Wataru was definitely not paying full attention to him. Those words were definitely of a reaper doing his job, a reaper in cloth of the sun. “Aren’t you too, so sad?”

“Oh my, Butler-san is using my own word on me. How cheeky!”   


Wataru jumps down, white chrysanthemum turns to daffodils.

“My path is long, and all I want is merely company.” 

Yuzuru smiles. And that is the first time, Wataru has ever seen he smiled since his first step in here.

Daffodils turn to roses.

“You were clearly annoyed at my presence before, but no worry, this Hibiki Wataru will definitely accompany you to the end of your journey!”   
  
Yuzuru received the roses, saying no more and ready to listen.

“My stories are not fairy tales, yet they are not those of Romeo and Juliet either. Pick your favorite and I’ll let you hear!”

**Author's Note:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS BEING LIKE 1 HOUR BEFORE THE VERY END OF THE GIFTING PERIOD (at my place)
> 
> And this prob isn't what you would imagine receiving for your (late) Valentine Gift, but I work better with AU and I tried my very very best to stick as close as possible to the prompt ;;;;;;; So I hope you like it, but if you don't then I'm very very very very very sorry. I spent way more time on this than I supposed to and ;;;; I'm So Sorry.
> 
> I really do hope you would somewhat enjoy this to a certain extend, thank you for reading nevertheless!


End file.
